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Member Submissions
For many of our members, life feels hopeless on the registry and rightly so, but some of our members have survival tips that they would like to share with others. These tips will possibly be of no help to some members, but for the sake of those who could benefit from reading how others have been able to improve their situation, even if only in a small way, please be patient as members share what successes they have been able to achieve while on this insane, punitive registry.
Please send additional successes or survival tips to be posted to media@floridaactioncommittee.org.
SUBMISSION #1
With regards to having successes, I’ve had a few.
-Law enforcement. I basically take the approach that if I make life easy for them – they’ll make life easy for me. I treat them with respect and courtesy at all times and ask questions and take any steps necessary to prevent alarms or them having to do extra work. My thought is that law enforcement and I have the exact same goal – Do not violate probation/registration. If there is even a 1% chance of violation – then ask. Don’t ever assume.
-I did a lot of research and learned how to start my own business. It’s harder work but at least I didn’t have to worry about doing a background check.
SUBMISSION #2
I am a registered sex offender and have been on the registry since 2013. I have been off probation for 3 years. I have also been diagnosed with Asperger’s. I had a job for 7 years and got hired at a new job in February. I own my own home. All my neighbors like me and I am getting married on October 13 of 2023. She knows about my status and knows my history and is ok with what I did. That’s hard to do. The best part is that I got support from my loving family.
SUBMISSION #3
I’ve learned who my true friends are.
Out of my former friends, at least one said we could no longer be friends. A few others have quietly backed off and stopped returning my calls. Still others have reached out less frequently, made and kept plans less frequently, been shorter in communication. And some have become “polite persecutors,” as FAC had described.
Yet some have remained fiercely loyal, without hesitating to reach out and consistently unashamed to be seen associating with me.
I finally learned who my real friends are.
And there’s almost no way to tell in advance of a conviction, which friends will be the loyal ones. Some are right-wing, some are left-wing. Some men, some women. Some parents, some childless. Some prominent in the community, some private. Some are even in law enforcement.
So I know on whom to focus my energies and loyalties.
By the way, as someone who’s gotten in touch with his own weaknesses, I can admit that, were the shoe on the other foot, I might be the “polite persecutor” FAC describes. But my conviction has given me the gift of humility.
Has anyone tried using the 1st and 5th amendment during the registration process? Can we go in to the sheriffs office, state our name once the recording starts and then refuse to answer any further questions by stating “due to 1st and 5th amendment protections I will not be answering questions?”
Nextdoor is a bunch of adults acting like middle and high school bullies. These people need to grow up and mind their own business while working on themselves.
Hopeless come on, one can always feel hopeless when something like this happens. Sure at times one has to put up with it but there is a right way and a wrong way. Meditate on something. Say a prayer. If you are being attacked at times its better to not say anything . Sure these registry ordeals aren’t easy and this Judd fellow in florida doesn’t seem to play by the rules.
Sure I got a bit wrapped up into this but when that police detective offered me a plea deal that was the straw that broke the camels back. Gives me a great wink and I never said a word. Now if words can incriminate someone than all the USA should take a good bitch slap to the face. I don’t know of any person that doesn’t bitch.
I have been a sweat box a few times in my early days but this registry is nothing like a sweat box as its a life of looking over one’s shoulder and thinking the worst. Sure a person once said their is nothing to fear but fear itself. So who has faith today when these ordeals come up and the trama that arrises out of them. Best thing to do is clear your mind and go about your normal business and even speaking out is good like FAC to help others in all this headache. And they call this punitive damage?
Saddles
I have been basically left alone for years. Then Nextdoor came along and things flared up 1000%. None of the registry is punished they say but even off of probation we are banned from a %$#@ app? or website? Come on man, basic rights.
And what about our families? NO one in my household or yours, or any of our families who have the same address are allowed on Nextdoor. Our families are excluded because of a connection to us. What has the greatest nation on earth become when you punish a family member for what we have done? Oh wait, I am sorry, correction there is NO punishment in the dictionary that covers anything to do with anyone on the registry.
I am inventing a new word , punishment related to the registry is now called : “Regitorical” .
When I was in prison most of the inmates that looked down on registrants, were the ones with subscriptions to Barely Legal and spent a lot of time in the bathroom. I doubt they were breaking some type of code.
Barely Legal is legal right? Masturbation is legal too right? ( I assume you mean the magazine and time spent in the bathroom dedicated to looking at it)
LPH
Yes you correct, sorry I should of given more context or rephrased it. Just found it odd that inmates thought most registrants went after teens; while masturbating to barely legal. Heck most had pictures naked young and adult women in their locker.
Submission # 1
I Was once pulled over for running a stop sign before lighting me up the officers followed me for almost a mile I knew they were running my tag and were going to pull me over no matter what once my status came back so I wasn’t surprised. During the usual initial questions Where are you going Where are you coming from which I answered then but never again the second officer is looking through my car with a flashlight that is as bright as stadium lights The first officer then asks me questions about my son’s child safety seat in the backseat I answered the questions but will never do that again either so after 30 minutes for a 10-15 minute traffic infraction. The first officer hands me citation and say It took so long because I caused them to do more work my reply was blame the legislature. My point being the government isn’t trying to make our lives any easier we are tasked with doing extra things that the average person does not or face prison again. So I am civil but I will not give up anymore of my rights than they have already taken this experience has not been pleasant for me or my family so I couldn’t care less if someone in the machine has to fill out a extra form
Iservedmytym
Having been in law enforcement myself, I will tell you, cops “LOVE” traffic stops. 10000000 other crimes could be on hold while they “Look” for something that isn’t there. A simple stop turns into someone getting shot because an officer sees a half smoked joint in the console. Next thing you know they are tearing the car apart looking for that huge bag of cocaine that doesn’t exist.
It use to amaze me when I was in training, how half a shift was sometimes burned up with a single traffic stop. Then the paper work, processing the car, taking the person to jail for a joint, etc. A waste of tax payers money and ties up officers from responding to “Real” crimes.
I realize now days that a joint is not a big deal to the law makers but can tell you, officers still look for things that are not there. My personal experience is now the Registry is that joint. I have been stopped both in a car and also “Walking while on the registry”. I have so many contacts with law enforcement that the FDLE has a special file on me.
I drive like a granny to avoid being pulled over. And now with some departments using license plate readers, the chance of getting pulled over just to be messed with has skyrocketed. When I even see a cop on the same road as me, I turn off somewhere and wait until they pass just to avoid the long interrogations. They have lasted anywhere from 20 minutes with a reasonable officer to one incident that lasted almost 3 hours and involved 7 officers, and a call to the FDLE to see if I was supposed to be on school grounds. My grandson had to sit in the principles office with an officer until I was told to leave and not come back and was NOT allowed to take my grandson with me.
This is like slaves sharing tips on how to live comfortably on slave ships until they’re brought to the fields and worked to death. This is not “success”, it is coping at best. Its even more depressing than the typical content.
I want to hear stories on how you stuck it to the oppressors. How you inflicted your pain back on them multiple times over. How you made them regret. How you came out ahead and they came out behind. If you don’t have any, then go out and make some.
This ^ 100%.
Good for those who have been able to do something with their lives but they are still under constant surveillance for no good reason. They still have to ask permission to go on a vacation like asking permission to see the prison doctor and hearing a “hall pass”. That’s not success and it’s no way to live.
And GETTING a hall pass. I have no idea why my phone decided to spell “hearing”.
KLM
This is a real story but do not remember the state or department it involved. It was years ago but remember it well. A small town had so many officers that they touted that there was a zero crime rate. The cops started getting bored because there was nothing to do but they were loving the funding they got from the Government to have such a large force.
So to keep the funding flowing, they were creating crimes that didn’t exist and were harassing residents for not mowing their lawns and issuing citations to appear in court for things like broken down cars in their driveways. In the end, the citizens voted to disband the department and have the Sheriff’s office patrol their area and respond to calls “When needed”. This was like 20 years ago way before the “Defund” the police movement.
Great story, thank you Cherokee. I think BLM and defund movements would be much more successful if they argued that this is what is happening at a large scale with the prison industrial complex, rather than making it about race first and foremost and thus dividing their base unnecessarily.